Big Brother Casting – The Reasons Why Tim, Tully And Ed Were Cast

by Reality Raver

TV Week again this year has chatted to producer of Big Brother Alex Mavroidakis to find how and why they cast who they did. As usual it is a cracker article so to show your appreciation go check out the TV WEEK website, like their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter as this article is only in the hardcopy of the magazine. In fact buy the magazine for some of their other TV gossip.

Earlier this year Alex said they cast around three key people (Ed note: Unfortunately unable to find link to that quote). He does not really reveal who these three are but it could be Ben, Tim and Tahan could have been the three.

Here is what Alex revealed to TV WEEK:

“How it works is we whittle [the applicants] down to 40 people and put their faces on a wall.” and “We build houses around people, because Big Brother is the ultimate psychological and social experiment In order for it to work properly you can’t just put 13 or 14 extroverts in the house and hope for the best.”

Then he went on to discuss individual housemates:

Ed: “Ed was in the mix last year, but didn’t quite fit in. He auditioned again this year and we’ve always liked him. We felt he was the exact person who every mother wants their daughter to bring home and say ‘This is my new boyfriend.’

“Because I am horrendously jealous of Ed. I tried to get a rise out of him or get him to say something wrong – but he’s completely unflappable!”

Tim: “Tim actually auditioned for Big Brother last year. A classic bit of casting here. Tim is what we call a ‘money in the bank’ housemate. “We made a decision last year not to put him in because we were relaunching on a new network and we already had some very big characters. [But], he was perfect for 2013 and was the first face on the wall.

“We all thought Tim would be the villain – and at first he was. But it’s interesting what can happen. In week one, it was very anti-Tim, with people thinking ‘Who’s this show-off with the long hair coming in here?’.

“I read all the criticism telling Big Brother these weren’t real people – but fast-forward [to now] and Tim is the most popular housemate.”

Mikkayla: “She just never stopped talking at auditions! When you’re making as much TV as we do on Big Brother, you need people who talk incessantly.

“Mikkayla is a classic teacher – she bosses everyone around. She did at auditions too and upset a few people by doing what she thought was absolutely nothing wrong. She never shuts up. She’s gold dust for us. We love her, but I’d never have thought Mikkayla would have lasted this long.”

Ben: “In the nine years I’ve worked on Big Brother, Ben’s the most extraordinary character wer have ever met. At the auditions when he spoke the room fell silent and we hung on every word he said.
” Ben was very high up on our thoughts as soon as we met him. He was quickly cast as well as one of those people you can almost build the series around.”

Tahan: “She was in from the second we saw her. The most stunningly gorgeous girl I have ever seen in my life who can talk as well as she can, and gets so riled up so easily. Tahan has no filter whatsoever!”

“At casting, people try to suck up to you and laugh at jokes that aren’t funny, but Tahan doesn’t have to be nice. She doesn’t pretend to like girls at all. She pretty much has zero girlfriends in real life and zero in the Big Brother house.”

Drew: “We met Drew at the auditions in Melbourne and all the girls in the room were swooning over him within five minutes of meeting him. That obviously a very good look for us!

“You could just tell that the 20 girls in the room would have left with him immediately. He could have just said, ‘Come on baby, let’s go’ – and that’s always a good sign. Drew also demonstrated that he’s clever. He was school captain, he’s intelligent, he’s very cool, he’s witty and he talks well.”

Tully: “Tully was an extraordinary housemate. She’s the most talked – about housemate this season. Big Brother needs talkability. It thrives on it and demands authenticity unlike any other show. “Tully is a real character who went in there and really threw herself into the experience.”

Interesting. I must say however, casting for this season was definitely a lot better than the last. So much more interesting housemates. Last season we had boring people like Stacey and Sarah (I only liked Ray). But this year the housemates add a lot to the house.

They must have thought Ed had something that we are not seeing on screen, because he was considered for last year as well!
I think he and his brother would have been good together in the house.
The others I can understand as they would have stood out for various reasons.

I don’t think Mikk would have liked that description of her. She never could understand how others perceived her.
Not all teachers are bossy to everyone from my experience.
The producers obviously wanted brawn but no personality as one of the hm.

IMO:
be firm, fair, genuinely loving, compassionate, hardworking (to provide good learning experiences) and it helps if you are funny and a big dag.
No need to be bossy and if you do the above no need to raise your voice.

Great article there! I think bb picks out the big personalities and then fills in the spaces with complete opposites. It just becomes a game of luck for the less extroverted housemates to last the distance. I think Drew fits into that category…playing it well, using Tim as the Sidekick while emerging himself as a worthy competitor.

Considering he’s in the final seven (make that five if you exclude intruders) I would have thought that at least some people like him.
I’m not even a fan myself but i would never label him or his family desperate just because, like thousands of others he wanted to go on a popular TV show. Oh and God forbid his family for trying to keep him in.

David, he may well have been behind the scenes at the group auditions, or as any good boss might do he may have discussed the group auditions with his team and viewed the video. I’d be more surprised if he didn’t know.

Tim also auditioned last year. Theres a guy from my old job up on the gold coast and he auditiöned last year and got a called back to the top 30- he failed the gay friendly/ neutral bit though:< just shows some people take a few years to get in, I'm sure alot of people would think this is their big/lucky break.